Danielle Trussoni is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Ancestor, Angelology and Angelopolis, all New York Times Notable Books, and The Puzzle Master, chosen by The Washington Post as one of their Best Thrillers of 2023. Her memoir, Falling Through the Earth, was selected by The New York Times as one of the Top Ten Books of the Year.

Q. The Puzzle Box signals the return of Mike Brink, the protagonist of your previous novel, The Puzzle Master. What is unusual about Mike, and can you tell us why his special abilities are important to the book as a thriller?

Danielle: Mike Brink, who is an ingenious puzzle solver, has something called Savant Syndrome. This is an actual disorder that has occurred only a handful of times (there are between 50-75 documented cases) when there’s damage to the brain. It’s a rather mysterious phenomenon. After a traumatic brain injury, people with Savant Syndrome develop startling mental abilities. Some people become incredibly good at playing music, for example. Other people develop an ability with languages. But Mike Brink develops an ability to see patterns, solve puzzles, and make order out of chaos. I stumbled across this disorder when doing research and realized that this skill—it’s really a kind of superpower!—would be perfect for a hero of a mystery novel.

Q. How did you get inside the mind of such a unique character?

Danielle: It isn’t easy. I’ve had to do a lot of reading and research about geniuses, especially because Savant Syndrome is not at all common. When developing the riddles and puzzles that are in the novel, I’ve worked with real puzzle geniuses, two in particular: Brendan Emmett Quigley and Wei-Hwa Hwang, both of whom have been essential in creating challenging and fun puzzles that fit into the plot of the novel.

Q. Is it important to read The Puzzle Master beforehand?

Danielle: Not at all. The Puzzle Box was written as a stand-alone novel. While Mike Brink is the hero of both books, you can read the second novel first.

Q. Why did you set most of the story in Japan? How did you map out Mke’s journey across the country?

Danielle: I lived in Japan for two years and have always wanted to write a novel set there. And I’ve been intrigued by Japanese puzzle boxes and wanted to write a thriller around a mysterious puzzle box that holds world-changing secrets. This novel was the perfect vehicle for both of those interests.

Q. Not to give too much away (no spoilers!), but the solution to the mystery touches on a real-life debate currently happening in Japan about the succession of the Imperial Family. Can you talk a little about why this topic is of interest to you, and why it was important to incorporate feminist themes and the history of female rulers and succession laws in Japan into your novel? 

Danielle: This part of the novel touches on something that I feel strongly about and, while I don’t want to give too much away, it is important in ways that are universal. Historically, Japan has had many female rules. There were eight Empresses of the Imperial Family in the past. Now, it is illegal for a female descendant to ascend to the throne and become Empress. This seems to me, and to eighty percent of Japanese, to be antiquated. My novel touches on this, and explores the debate.

Q. Without giving too much away, the relationship between two sisters is very significant to the plot. Why was including this aspect important to you? 

Danielle: Sakura and Ume, two Japanese American sisters, are descended from a disgraces Samurai clan. They, like Brink, want to understand the secret that is locked in the puzzle box, only they end up on opposite sides: one sister works with Brink, and the other is with his nemesis, Sedge. When I lived in Japan, I came across accounts of the female members of samurai families, but when I began to do research about this, I found that there was very little about these female warriors. Creating sisters who were raised in this tradition was a challenge, but I found these two young women to be my favorite characters in the novel.

Q. How do you create such intricate, seemingly impossible puzzles and then solve them on the page? What are the challenges with writing about puzzles?

Danielle: As I mentioned, I work with real puzzle geniuses to create the puzzles you find in the book. That said, each puzzle is only a magnification of the story and plot I’ve already developed. The intricate nature of the puzzles—as well as the plot!—is so much fun for me to create. I love getting lost in a story and being taken away into something challenging that has a big payoff. When creating these puzzles, and this novel as a whole, I was always thinking: Is this going to be fun for the reader?

Q. Will Mike Brink appear again in a future novel?

Danielle: Fingers crossed that he will! I’m planning another book set in Paris, and I hope that the stars align and it will be published.